The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Viola plant botanically known as Viola cornuta and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Blackout’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Westerbork, The Netherlands during March 2008. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Viola cultivars with high floriforousness, attractive black flower coloration, medium green-colored foliage, and outwardly-spreading, mounded growth habit.
The new Viola cultivar is the result of cross-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is the ‘Molly Sanderson’, not patented, characterized by its black-colored flowers, medium green-colored foliage, and compact-spreading growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is ‘Highland Black’, not patented, characterized by its black-colored flowers, medium green-colored foliage, and upright growth habit. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during March 2009 in a controlled environment in Westerbork, The Netherlands.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since March 2009 at Westerbork, The Netherlands and Elburn, Ill. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.